Read Around Asia Challenge

Read at least one book by an author from each country in Asia.

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Best books from Asia (893)
351.

Pain by Zeruya Shalev EN

0 Ratings
Country: Asia / Israel flag Israel
Description:
“Zeruya Shalev is one of my favorite contemporary writers, her work always spiky and original, and Pain is a searing book, a wild and ravenous story of family entanglement and impossible yearning.” —Lauren Groff, author of Florida and Fates and Furies A powerful, astute novel that exposes how old passions can return, testing our capacity to make choices about what is most essential in life. Ten years after she was seriously injured in a terrorist attack, the pain comes back to torment Iris. But that is not all: Eitan, the love of her youth, also comes back into her life. Though their relations... continue

352.

A Horse Walks Into a Bar by David Grossman EN

0 Ratings
Country: Asia / Israel flag Israel
Description:
"A stand-up comedian recalls some of his darkest moments and traumatic memories from childhood on stage in front of a live audience."--

353.

A Tale of Love and Darkness by Amos Oz EN

Rating: 4 (1 vote)
Country: Asia / Israel flag Israel
Description:
Discover Amos Oz’s most iconic work in this extraordinary memoir that is at once a great family saga and a magical self-portrait of a writer who witnessed the birth of a nation *OVER 2 MILLION COPIES SOLD WORLDWIDE* ‘A hero of mine, a moral as well as literary giant’ Simon Schama Amos Oz's remarkable, moving story takes us on a seductive journey through his childhood and adolescence, along Jerusalem's war-torn streets in the 1940s and '50s and into a small apartment crowded with books in twelve languages and relatives speaking nearly as many. Caught between them is one small boy with the weigh... continue

354.

The Circumference of the World by Lavie Tidhar EN

Rating: 4 (1 vote)
Country: Asia / Israel flag Israel
Description:
Caught between realities, a mathematician, a book dealer, and a mobster desperately seek a notorious book that disappears upon being read. Only the author, a rakish sci-fi writer, knows whether his popular novel is truthful or a hoax. In a story that is cosmic, inventive, and sly, multi-award-winning author Lavie Tidhar (Central Station) travels from the emergence of life to the very ends of the universe. Delia Welegtabit discovered two things during her childhood on a South Pacific island: her love for mathematics and a novel that isn't supposed to exist. But the elusive book proves unexpecte... continue

355.

Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami EN

Rating: 4 (2 votes)
Country: Asia / Japan flag Japan
Description:
A mesmerising mystery story about friendship from the internationally bestselling author of Norwegian Wood and 1Q84 Tsukuru Tazaki had four best friends at school. By chance all of their names contained a colour. The two boys were called Akamatsu, meaning ‘red pine’, and Oumi, ‘blue sea’, while the girls’ names were Shirane, ‘white root’, and Kurono, ‘black field’. Tazaki was the only last name with no colour in it. One day Tsukuru Tazaki’s friends announced that they didn't want to see him, or talk to him, ever again. Since that day Tsukuru has been floating through life, unable to form intim... continue
Genre

356.

Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi EN

Rating: 4 (67 votes)
Country: Asia / Japan flag Japan
Description:
*NOW AN LA TIMES BESTSELLER* *OVER ONE MILLION COPIES SOLD* *AN INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER* If you could go back in time, who would you want to meet? In a small back alley of Tokyo, there is a café that has been serving carefully brewed coffee for more than one hundred years. Local legend says that this shop offers something else besides coffee—the chance to travel back in time. Over the course of one summer, four customers visit the café in the hopes of making that journey. But time travel isn’t so simple, and there are rules that must be followed. Most important, the trip can last only as long... continue

357.

Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami EN

Rating: 5 (3 votes)
Country: Asia / Japan flag Japan
Description:
A male college student falls in love with a woman who, over the years, guides him in her travels, and then disappears without trace. Assisting in the search, he goes home to Japan, where he finally achieves a true understanding of his beloved.

358.

The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa EN

Rating: 4 (8 votes)
Country: Asia / Japan flag Japan
Description:
Shortlisted for the International Booker Prize 2020, an enthralling Orwellian novel about the terrors of state surveillance from one of Japan's greatest writers. 'Beautiful... Haunting' Sunday Times 'A dreamlike story of dystopia' Jia Tolentino __________ Hat, ribbon, bird rose. To the people on the island, a disappeared thing no longer has any meaning. It can be burned in the garden, thrown in the river or handed over to the Memory Police. Soon enough, the island forgets it ever existed. When a young novelist discovers that her editor is in danger of being taken away by the Memory Police, she... continue
Genre

359.

The Sailor who Fell from Grace with the Sea by Yukio Mishima EN

Rating: 3 (3 votes)
Country: Asia / Japan flag Japan
Description:
A band of savage thirteen-year-old boys reject the adult world as illusory, hypocritical, and sentimental, and train themselves in a brutal callousness they call 'objectivity'. When the mother of one of them begins an affair with a ship's officer, he and his friends idealise the man at first; but it is not long before they conclude that he is in fact soft and romantic. They regard this disallusionment as an act of betrayal on his part - and the retribution is deliberate and horrifying.

360.

The Decagon House Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji EN

Rating: 5 (1 vote)
Country: Asia / Japan flag Japan
Description:
"Ayatsuji's brilliant and richly atmospheric puzzle will appeal to fans of golden age whodunits... Every word counts, leading up to a jaw-dropping but logical reveal" — Publishers Weekly A hugely enjoyable, page-turning murder mystery sure to appeal to fans of Elly Griffiths, Anthony Horowitz, and Agatha Christie, with one of the best and most-satisfying conclusions you'll ever read. A classic in Japan, available in English for the first time. From The New York Times Book Review: "Read Yukito Ayatsuji’s landmark mystery, The Decagon House Murders, and discover a real depth of feeling beneath t... continue